Old Dreams

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Chapter Eight

"I see someone."

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Whatever Sammy and Jezebel were expecting to see when they got out of the sub, it wasn't what they saw.

"Oh my-" Jezebel stuttered before bringing her hand to her mouth. Sammy didn't do anything to hint at what he was feeling, but it wasn't far behind that.

The city he knew from when he was younger, full of color and diversity, was now blank and gray.

There were no people except them out there and quite frankly it was scaring him.

Looking out at the 'city' now, he felt a surge of hatred rise through him. Damn the overlords! he thought to himself. Damn them!

Jezebel's thinking wasn't quite on that track but it wasn't far behind. The sky…it's…black, and this fog! Where is all this fog coming from? Is it day or night? Inside they said it's around five in the morning…But there isn't a hint of sun out here…But it has to be here, right? I mean, we can still see…

Ved gave them a few seconds before motioning with his fingers to follow him.

Unlike Group 16's usual formation, they were doing this slightly different to protect Sammy and Jezebel a bit more. Ved and Josie were in front, then Sammy and Jezebel, then Alan and Chloe. They started walking up the docks and into the city.

Sammy recognized it immediately which surprised him. If you walk a few more blocks, and turn left you'd be by the mall. The Mallrats… he thought to himself before shaking those thoughts out of his head. He didn't need this right now.

Sammy tried to pay attention to what Ved was doing, and he was doing a great job until he saw something out of the corner of his eye, he turned his head to look only to be hit lightly by Chloe.

"Pay attention, Sammy!" She reprimanded him. If it hadn't been for the fact that Sammy knew she was just worried about him, he might've gotten angry. Before he could answer a bright flash of light took over his mind and everything in it felt as though it was slowly being filtered out, leaving Sammy with only a vision.

A boy was running, tan skin, black hair, around thirteen years of age. Sweat on his brow and a panicked look on his face. He wasn't talking, he probably didn't even know how, it had been so long since he needed to. He couldn't yell for help, because he didn't know what to yell. A tall silver machine, about five feet high, with a bowl shaped head that had a black cover over the 'bowl' that was so highly polished you could see yourself in it, with a larger, open…mouth. Inhumanly large, yet you knew that's where it comes from, humans. They just change everything in the meat factory.

There were wheels under it, which was how it moved around. It was letting out a high pitched scream scaring the boy, who couldn't seem to find a way out.

A Screamer.

He was shaking his head 'no'. His life could not end like this, he escaped the dorms to die by these things anyway? This couldn't be happening.

Larger things were coming, much larger, and more dangerous. He was so busy concentrating on those things, he didn't even hear the green machines that were coming up to him. It was a strange looking thing, skinny and tall like the Screamers but without the black mask and mouth, it had a…nose…a human nose, but torn and stretched to an impossible size for a regular human. You could see the tears and scars from where the machines in the factory had to stretch it.

It was also stronger than the human nose. It started a strange beeping, bringing the larger machines over much more quickly than before.

Apparently he was worth looking into.

They were large and blocky, and looked somewhat clumsy, but unlike their appearance suggests, they were oddly graceful in how they moved. Some walked, some rolled. It all depended on which model you were looking at. All were anywhere from six feet to eight feet tall and there were three of them there.

Myrmidons.

The strongest ones and the ones that would take you back to the meat factory to be chopped up into little pieces. The only other ones that did that would be Wingers, those large flying things that looked strangely enough like dragons when they were in the sky, with a long, movable metal body and large wings coming from it.

The boy chanced a look up to see if any were there, there were, but they weren't paying attention to this, probably knowing they weren't going to get him, so why bother?

The boy didn't know any of this of course, about the machines, but Sammy did. Sammy thought about what the somewhat long Ferrets would do if they got the boy and the answer came to him simple enough, they'd do what all the ferrets do - they'd eat him.

The Myrmidons were getting closer to the boy, they were only about three feet away from him when the tallest and closest raised it's inhumanly large arm and pointed it at him. The boy was confused until he saw the large sharp metal that was coming out where a hand would be in a human. His eyes widened.

He was going to the meat factory if they were willing to hurt him.

Sammy shook his head, Chloe looking at him closely.

"Sammy! Don't space out like that! If you do that again, you could get killed!" Chloe whispered to him. Sammy looked at her, but his eyes seemed to be going through her, instead of at her. Chloe was about to shake him when he turned away from the group and began running to where he saw the movement.

He heard Chloe yell something to Ved and began t run faster. Chloe was faster than Ved, no problem, but that didn't mean that Ved was slow, or for that matter, weak. Sammy knew that even with as fast as he was going, Ved could run laps around him and still have enough breath to catch him.

I have to find that boy! He thought to himself. Mouse needs me to. He had no idea how Mouse came into this equation, but that's what the voice in his head was telling him, and from some reason he couldn't shut it up.

Not that he wanted to.

He ran down the alley, The entire group closing in behind him, at the end of the alley he turned left took a step forward and ducked. He let a grin out. When he turned to Ved who was looking angry enough to kill someone, Sammy nodded to him.

"I see someone." He whispered. Ved looked at him confused before following Sammy's example and ducking. Everyone else followed after that.

Ved nodded to Sammy and Sammy looked at him like he was insane.

"You want me to lead?" He whispered. Ved nodded.

"You saw someone, not us, we don't know where to go or anything, you lead." Sammy nodded before looking over the old dumpster they were hiding behind before moving out, but not before telling everyone to leave the area in twos and threes to make sure everyone was with someone else. Sammy crossed the street with Chloe, and once again, everyone followed. They were in the middle of an old street now, if Sammy remembered correctly, this was where the 'Red's' hung out, but then again, it could be the 'Blue's', it's been so long…

Sammy waited for some kind of sign, telling him that they needed to move again when it happened.

A slow whistle that slowly and gradually turned into a scream.

"The Screamer found him, we have to hurry." He told them. Ved started to stand, not knowing that Sammy really DID see something, and getting ready to tell him to stop, that it was to dangerous if a Screamer had found the person already. As though Sammy read his mind, saying quickly so that it was of no interest to any of the machines around, "We've got time!"

With no other choice, the others followed.

-fin-